Monday, November 29, 2010

Banana Tree vs 29 Degrees

We finally had a temperature below 30 degrees and as usual, the Elephant Ears look pretty sad. The leaves are browning around the edges and drooping to the ground. Very sad for a plant that was standing tall with huge leaves just a couple of days ago. This is the first year for the Banana tree and it really hates the cold. The leaves folded down at the top of the stems loosing all of their ability to stand up. Next on the list is to cut it down and mulch it heavily with hopes that it will survive the winter and grow again next spring.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Extra Tall Grapefruit Trees

It is that time of year again. All the cold sensitive plants have to come inside to survive the winter. These Grapefruit trees started from seed a couple of years ago have grown a couple of feet a year. This year they are almost touching the ceiling so almost 8 feet tall. I was able to convince my wife to cut another Grapefruit down to three feet tall. I hope it will encourage the tree to bush out instead of growing taller. This tree is spending the winter in the greenhouse so we'll see what happens next summer.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Plants Move into House

The greenhouse isn't big enough for all the plants that can't survive the winter so a bunch of them come inside the house. Here are two giant Crotons that are growing like crazy. We bought them as tiny 6 inch plants at least 5 years ago and now they are huge. It is lucky since several years ago, I left them outside during the first freeze and it almost killed them. It took a couple of years for them to recover and grow much bigger. In addition the Pineapple plants my wife grows from Pineapple tops are incredible. They spread out 4 feet with pointy leaves (ouch) and are over two feet tall. Also in that picture are last years Poinsettias which are still looking pretty good.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Get Ready for Winter

Here comes winter. First look at the new color scheme for our Dawn Redwood tree. Look back to my post on April 6th to see how different this tree looks with the change of seasons. It has gone from deep green to a rich brown. In the second picture is the greenhouse which we have filled with a bunch of the plants from the deck. The plants enjoy the spring, summer and fall on the deck around the pond but in order to survive the winter they have to move into a protected area.

Monday, November 01, 2010

Large Pond Cleaning Finale

Here are the last pictures from the pond cleaning. First a bucket of Goldfish showing some of the multiple colors of our fish. We counted a total of 56 Goldfish ranging in size from several inches to one foot long. They spent about 4 hours in the temporary Rubbermaid holding cistern and then returned to the clean pond. Finally the bottom picture is the freshly cleaned waterfall. The steps of the waterfall were replaced with slate and the rocks were all scrubbed to remove the algae.